He stayed still, not pulling his cheek away from mine, and I prayed he couldn't hear my heart racing with excitement. It was the first time I'd been this close to a man. His warm breath fanned my neck, and I fought hard to keep my eyes open.
"Deniz."
At Aslı's voice, Demir slowly pulled back, his eyes lingering in mine, while Aslı looked between us grinning.
"Bro, what are you doing here?"
Demir slipped his hands back in his pockets and turned to Aslı.
"Are you questioning me now, Aslı?"
He raised one eyebrow at her, and Aslı looked at him with a shy, embarrassed expression — as if she'd just realized what she'd said.
"No, bro, of course not. It's just — there's Yiğit's soldier celebration tonight, that's all I meant."
I stood frozen, unable to make a sound, watching them. Demir glanced at me sarcastically before turning back to Aslı. He'd noticed I was affected. Damn it!
"Everyone be there tonight."
Without letting us say a word, he turned and walked away with a swagger — I jumped when my arm tingled slightly.
"Girl! The gossip mills are already boiling over. You two stood there like that for five minutes, oh my god — so sweet!"
Five minutes? Was it that short? It had felt like centuries to me. Aslı linked arms with me and we started walking, while the aunties at the door whispered and stared as they saw us.
What a gossipy neighborhood this was!
"Aslı, why are they whispering and looking at me?"
"Aunty Nuran told everyone you threw her out. Plus they saw you with my bro, of course."
Aslı gave me a mischievous look. I rolled my eyes and scratched the back of my neck in embarrassment.
"Demir just said something to me, that's all it was."
"Demir?!"
I felt some eyes on us and quickly covered Aslı's mouth in panic. Why did she yell when she got excited?
"What are you doing, girl? Are you trying to bring the whole neighborhood down on us?"
"You called my bro — the guy — Demir?"
"Yes. Why do you call him 'bro'?"
She linked arms with me again and we kept walking.
"Out of respect — everyone here calls him 'bro'."
Ah! Now I could see where his ego came from.
When we arrived at Aunty Ahu's house, she greeted us cheerfully and we got to work right away. I carefully rolled the grape leaves in front of me while joining in their conversation now and then.
"Good thing you girls came — I couldn't manage this alone. Mr. Demir specifically asked me to make these grape leaves."
Mr. Demir, huh? Let him come roll them himself then. This man loved giving orders...
"Oh, what do you mean, Aunty Ahu? How could one person roll all these on their own?"
"Is this Yiğit person your son, Aunty Ahu? Demir's brother?"
She froze mid-roll, looking at me and muttering.
"Demir?"
Aslı laughed and nodded, while Aunty Ahu smiled at me with a sly glint in her eyes.
What was that about?
"No, dear — Yiğit's one of our neighborhood boys. We do everything together here, helping each other out. Everyone does something different, and grape leaves fell to me."
She took a breath and lifted her teary eyes to mine — I stared, mesmerized, at her blue eyes.
"I have one Demir in this world. My husband died years ago. Everything — that damned business — fell to my Demir. Now I live in panic every day, scared I'll get bad news."
There was something there. Something they were hiding. But I'd find out — one way or another, I'd find out what that "damned business" was.
"Now I have two daughters too. Plus my sons Özgür and Arif, of course."
I smiled at Aunty Ahu, then Aslı and I planted a kiss on each of her cheeks. She chuckled and stroked our faces with her hands.
"Ooh, my sweet girls."
"Deniz, if you don't mind, I want to ask you something, dear."
I looked at her curiously as she spoke, her gaze shy.
"Did your father pass away, dear?"
My hands stopped immediately. I took a deep breath and leaned back. Aslı and Aunty Ahu watched me, curious. I wished he had died. Then maybe we wouldn't have suffered so much.
"I wish he had, Aunty Ahu. We've had a hard time. I don't know which hell he's in now, but wherever that bastard is, he can stay there. If he ever comes out, I'll kill him this time. He wasted 28 years of my life, stole my mom's youth, stole my childhood — but somehow we escaped him and moved here."
They must have understood what I meant, because they looked at me with sad smiles. What do you do when you suffer even while thinking?
"May it be easy for you."
I raised my eyebrows and looked at Demir as he walked in. How long had he been there? He kissed his mom's forehead and stroked her hair — no matter how tough he acted outside, he was just as innocent with his mother.
"Welcome, my boy."
My boy...
I turned my eyes back to the grape leaves and kept rolling them carefully.
"Good to be here, my queen. Are the rolls done? Not long till tonight."
Not long till tonight, he says. With all of us rolling, how could they possibly be done so soon?
"Almost done, my son. Us girls will manage it — don't you worry."
"Must be because there's someone rolling them half-heartedly," I said.
My eyes immediately met his, and as I'd expected, I saw him look at me sarcastically. Those eyes, which showed no sign of what had happened between us outside, were enough to irritate me. Did he want me to be embarrassed? I'd never let him get the better of me.
I was this close to taking a swing at those blue eyes.
"If you know so much, come roll them yourself, Demir. You're just standing there like a guard dog,"
He must have liked my sharp retort — one eyebrow went up, and his lips hovered between a smile and a frown.
"Don't put Deniz's work in another pile, mom. You won't be able to tell them apart — her hands are poisonous."
"Go bite the root of my heel, Demir."
I hissed the words at him, and he raised his eyebrows at me.
"Are you trying to put on a show for me in my own house?"